After the government's liberalization of the Northern areas of the country, the Bank of Ceylon (BoC) has been in the forefront of providing its banking services to the people in these areas. The bank's main concern is the wellbeing of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are stationed in camps. The Sunday Times spoke to Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe, Chairman of the BoC, to find out more of the bank's efforts to rehabilitate the IDPs in the north.
"We are currently in the process of providing our banking services to the IDPs living inside the camps. At present the bank has established 5 branches in the area of Manikfarm to cover its 5 zones. These branches are architecturally designed 40-foot containers, which provides online banking services and ATM facilities. Our banking services primarily comprises of accepting deposits and pawning services, in addition to this we have set up seven vans providing mobile banking services in all the of the Manikfarm camps", says Dr. Wickramasinghe.
BoC has also set up a banking unit inside the Pullmudai camp, for the benefit of over 5000 IDPs living in this camp. The BoC is the first bank to visit IDP camps in the liberalized areas providing fully-fledged online banking services, whilst also employing school leavers residing in these camps to service the branches set up in the zones. What the bank hopes to accomplish through initiatives such as this is to provide immediate banking facilities to these displaced individuals who on returning to their homes can thereafter continue with these banking facilities through the nearest bank located in their hometowns.
"We had around 15 branches in the North which we have now increased to around 24 and in time to come we intend to increase our branches even further. Another service that we provide is getting the close relatives and friends of the IDPs living overseas to remit money to these respective IDPs individual accounts, which has been quite a successful initiative taken by the bank. We have so far opened more than 10,000 accounts in the camps where each of these accountholders are entitled to an ATM card. This enables them to withdraw only what they need. Lak Sathosa outlets are also being established within these camps, which will have Point of Sales facilities where the ATM cards of these IDPs can be used for the purchase of goods. In addition to this we will also be offering various other types of humanitarian services, which will include educational, sanitation and health care services etc., to those living in these camps", further stated Dr. Wickramasinghe.
The BoC has also made plans to educate people in the above-mentioned areas on the many benefits the bank offers through its wide range of products and services. In addition to this the bank has stepped forward to educate the IDPs on the employment opportunities available through their respective areas such as agriculture, SMEs, fisheries, animal husbandry and diary farming etc. The bank has also gone all out to contribute monetarily and otherwise towards the IDPs by raising funds through its many societies and CSR initiatives.
" The BoC is genuinely working towards helping out the IDPs, who have now also become part of the bank's customers as well. Inside the camps the bank had already an estimated 35,000 of its existing customers residing in the camps in addition to our 10,000 new customers. We have so far collected close to Rs. 400 million in deposits, and what ever the money collected from these areas will be invested for that particular areas development purposes. Most of these liberated areas will require artificial fertilizer due to the topsoil being spoilt, which the government will be providing to help bring up the agricultural industries in these areas. We will also be providing low interest loans to those in the agricultural sectors in these areas with the support from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
With the tourism industry also looking much more favourable with the ending of the war we will also be looking towards providing our services towards the development of this sector. The bank will be greatly focusing on developing capacity building and human resources whilst also strengthening the tertiary education in the north with the assistance of certain organizations", concluded Dr. Wickramasinghe.
Through its many initiatives the BoC being the number one bank in Sri Lanka, has taken on the challenge of rehabilitating the IDPs and taking them beyond the IDP camps, especially with regards to those in the northern areas of the country to uplift their livelihoods and thereby contribute towards the progress of the country's economy. |
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